They voted for him.
Sen. John Edwards, running mate to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry on the Democratic Party ticket, has traveled a long road from the days he went off with his father to work at the Robbins mill.
His parents are sure their son will be moving from the floor to the podium as president of the U.S. Senate following the inauguration next year.
“We’re going to win,” Wallace Edwards said.
A horde of television cameras followed the Edwardses into the back room at Moore County’s Board of Elections. Reporters and photographers took notes and snapped pictures as the two appeared before poll workers to state their names and address. Cameras moved in to capture the Edwardses as they sat in a row of chairs with other voters, waiting their turn to vote.
Nobody offered any special treatment. They waited in line like everybody else.
Early voting days have been busy at the Board of Elections. On Tuesday morning, a fairly long line snaked past information boards and out the door across the parking lot of the office on Pinehurst Avenue in Carthage.
As she waited, it was clear to Bobbie Edwards that not everyone waiting to vote supported the same candidates. She said she tried to be as unobtrusive as anybody could be in a small sea of video paparazzi.
“I don’t want to make anybody feel uncomfortable,” she said.
Aware of problems caused by faulty votes on confusing ballots in the 2000 election, each of Edwards’ parents took considerable time casting votes.
At one point, a poll worker reminded Wallace Edwards that some choices were yet to be made, telling him he had not cast his vote in certain places.
This year’s ballot contains three proposed amendments to the North Carolina Constitution as well as nonpartisan school board races.
Wallace Edwards indicated that he was still studying the ballot. After a while, he completed his vote, then waited for his wife.
They turned toward the bank of cameras and made their way out past the line of waiting voters, some of whom appeared less than happy about the prospect of appearing on television.
There was an impromptu press conference in the parking lot of the elections board office.
“What were you thinking about?” one reporter asked.
“We were thinking about doing it right,” said Wallace Edwards with a smile.
